


FFVII Folk Tales: Luna’s Lamp

by ixieko



Series: FFVII Folk Tales [17]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Folklore, Gen, Ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 10:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5623447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ixieko/pseuds/ixieko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Luna, a young girl whose lover disappeared into the sea, and her long wait that lasted longer than her life...</p>
            </blockquote>





	FFVII Folk Tales: Luna’s Lamp

Long, long ago it happened. Near the Wailing Cliff - which, then, had a different name, - was a small village, and there lived a young woman named Luna. A good hunter she was, and a witch, and her lover was a fisherman.

Once in sping, when the sky was clear and cherry trees were blooming, Luna’s lover went off to sea. She waited and waited, and every day at sunset she went to the clifftop, and every night she lighted an enchanted fire there to show the way home, but the boat never appeared.

Spring ended, and summer came and went, and autumn painted trees in gold and orange and crimson, and still her lover wasn’t coming home. Luna’s mother told her that her lover was dead, and her father brought her parts of the wreckage the villagers found on the shore, but she looked at it and told him that her lover’s bracelet wasn’t among the wreckage. Her lover was still out there, she said, and went back to the clifftop to light the enchanted fire.

When winter’s winds began to blow, Luna left her house in the village and built herself a small shack at the bottom of the cliff. Every day she spent on the clifftop, overlooking the grey winter sea and watching grey clouds flying above, and every night she lighted the fire and whispered prayers for Leviathan to her lover find the way back. Sometimes, monsters wandered to the clifftop, attracted to the light, but Luna’s eyes were sharp, and her arms were strong, and she protected herself and the fire.

Her parents came to her and begged her to come home with them, and her friends came to her and asked her to return to the village with them, but she turned away from them and asked them to leave. Her lover was lost, and she wasn’t going home alone.

In spring, heavy clouds moved away, and cherry trees were blossoming again, but the sky wasn’t as bright blue as it was before; it was still grey, and the scent of flowers was faint. When her parents visited her again, Luna asked them to bring her flower seeds and cherry plants, and her mother brought them and planted them around her hut. In summer, the flowers blossomed, and every night Luna lighted the enchanted fire on the clifftop, and prayed to her lost lover, “Come home, come home to me, all those flowers are for you.”  
“I’m waiting for you,” She promised, looking at the dark sea and listening to the sound of waves, “I’ll wait for you forever.”

Months passed, winter winds came and gone, and there was spring, and then summer, and autumn again. Luna’s parents stopped visiting her, and her friends never showed up again. The trees that her mother had planted grew up and blossomed, and in the autumn they were covered in sweet red cherries, but no one picked them. Luna rarely left the clifftop; the enchanted fire was the only thing that mattered to her, the only thing that still had color and scent in the grey world around her.

The trees grew, and the winds blew, and seasons changed, while Luna waited. Sometimes monsters wandered to the clifftop, and fell back or fell dead under her deadly arrows. With time, monsters changed, - now they were covered in iron and had long iron claws, - but Luna didn’t think about it. The only thing that mattered was the fire. She didn’t know anymore why it was that important, only that it had to be lit every night, and that she had to wait for someone to see it and come back to her.  
And so she waited, and waited, and waited.

And then, one night in early spring, the sea glowed with green light, and in that light Luna saw a small white boat, and in it she saw her lost lover, bot not alone; there was another woman with her, and Luna’s heart ached. The boat sailed to the clifftop, right to the enchanted fire, and stopped there, and Luna’s lover stepped out of the boat, and the woman was at her side.  
Luna looked at the woman and asked, “Who are you?”, and she answered, “Don’t you recognize, me, Luna? I am _you_.”

And Luna’s lover said, “You both are you, Luna, only you are that part that stayed behind, that didn’t follow me into death, but wanted me to return to life.”  
“You are dead, Luna,” She said. “You died a long time ago. Look at yourself, look at your house, look around - what do you see?”  
Luna went to her hut and saw that the cherry trees were old and crooked, and of the hut, only a pile of old, worn bricks remained. She looked around and saw pieces of armor, and swords, and bones, and her arrows.  
“Did I kill all those people?” She asked, and her other half answered, sad and quiet, “Yes. They tried to go near your fire, and you saw them as monsters.”  
Then Luna went back to the fire, and put it out, and said, “Then, I have to go.”

This tale has two different endings; in the North, the first is more spread, and in South, the second.

In the first, Luna embraced her other half, and became whole again, and followed her lover into the realm of Goddess of Death. But sometimes, on nights when winter winds blow and the moon doesn’t shine, Luna lights her lamp with enchanted green fire, and they walk together to the high cliffs, and look at the dark sea, and talk, and laugh, and if on one of those nights you see a green light on a clifftop, look at it and you will see them.

In the second, Luna, terrified by her own monstrosity, ran away and now wanders the world alone, her promise and her love forgotten, only shame and fear left in her torn soul. But sometimes she remembers, and lights her lamp again, and stands facing the sea, and prays.


End file.
